Mirèio/Notes to Canto III
NOTES TO CANTO III.
1 The cocooning, or gathering of tbe cocoons, described in the seventh stanza of this canto.
2 The Ferigoulet is an excellent wine grown on one of the hillsides of Graveson. Ferigoulo is thyme, and the wine recalls the perfume of that plant.
3 "The Baume Muscat." Baume is a village in the department of Vaucluse. The environs produce a Muscat that sa much esteemed.
4 "Turned white." The canela, or whitening, is the term used to describe the silk-worms suffering from the terrible disease called the muscardine, due to the development of a sort of mouldiness, and which gives them a plaster-like appearance.
5 "You 've still your caul on,"—as ta crespino. Crespino, a cap, is also used for the membrane some children have upon their heads at birth, and which is supposed to be a sign of good luck.
6 "Ventour." A high mountain to the north-east of Avignon, abruptly rising 6,440 feet above the level of the sea, isolated, steep, visible forty leagues off, and for six months of the year capped with snow.
7 "Notre Dame des Dom." The cathedral church st Avignon, where the Popes formeriy officiated.
8 "Faneto de Gautèume." Janette, abridged from Estèfanette, of the noble family of Gautèume, or Gautelme, presided, about the year 1340, over the Court of Love at Roumanin. Courts of Love are known to have been poetical assizes, at which the noblest, most beautiful, and most learned ladies in Gay-saber decided on questions of gallantry and love, and awarded prizes for Provençal poetry. The celebrated and lovely Laura was niece to Fanette de Gautelme, and a member of her graceful areopagus. The ruins of the Castle of Roumanin may still be seen, not far from St. Remy, at the foot of the northern slope of the Lower Alps.
9 "Countess Dio." A celebrated poetess of the middle of the twelfth century. Such of her poems as have come down to us contain strains more impassioned, and occasionally more voluptuous, than those of Sappho.
10 The vampire, or roumeso, is thus described in the "Castagnados" of the Marquis Lafare Alais:—
"Sus vint arpo d'aragno
S'ecasso soun cars brun.
Soun ventre que regagno
Di fèbre e de magagno
Suso l'arre frescun."
That is, "On twenty spider-legs its brown body, as on stilts, is mounted; its belly swelled with fever and rottenness; the horrid odor thereof exudes."
11 The Luberon, or Luberoun, is a mountain-chain in the department of Vaucluse.
12 The Vaumasco (from Vau and Masco, Valley of Sorcerers) is a valley of the Luberoun, formerly inhabited by the Vaudois.
13 The song of Magali belongs to the class of poems called aubado,—music performed under a window in early morning, as a serenade is in the evening. (Beside the version given in the text, I have rendered the Song of Magali—rather roughly— into the peculiar and most un-English metre of the original; for I would not have the American readers of "Mirèio" miss the possible pleasure of singing this unique love-song to the simple but charming Provençal air to which it belongs. This second version will be found in the Appendix, together with the melody aforesaid, as transcribed for the piano by M. Fr. Seguin.—Am. Tr.)